What happened when I became a quartermaster for the Isle of Wight Follies will leave you in existential crisis, maybe!

I used to dread Monday mornings. Honestly, I’d sit there with a coffee, calculating how many days till payday and whether the rent was still covered. That was me, just a few months ago.

This is a theoretical account - can it be true? Find out for yourself, here....

It all changed with something I never expected: a treasure hunt. The kids and I stumbled across the Isle of Wight Follies during one of those desperate, cheap weekend outings.

We were struggling financially, tired, and needed a distraction. Just £3.50 for a week's pass of treasure hunting? Sold. I figured it would be a bit of fun for the little ones; sea serpents and silly stories, maybe a walk or two. We ended up having a proper laugh. It gave us a reason to explore. We examined all the locations and planned our adventure weekends, which would take us all over the island. The kids enjoyed it, and more so, the magic of scanning the locations with our phones, which then played a message that somehow blended lore, local history and humour!

But here’s the part I didn’t expect. I saw a mention about “Quartermasters”, locals who help promote the game and earn money doing it. I thought, why not? I'm here anyway. I didn’t even read the full details. I just liked the idea of supporting something imaginative. I dropped off a few leaflets at local cafés and mentioned it to a couple of shopkeepers I knew.

At the end of my first month, I got a payment. Not a tenner. Not fifty quid. I had sold ten plans and expected £150, but when I opened my account and saw over a thousand pounds, I genuinely thought it was a mistake. I messaged Mark to tell him his decimal spot must have been moved by a cheeky troll (Mark is the guy who runs it), and asked if I’d been overpaid. I was ready to send it back.

He laughed and said, “Nope. You’re a Quartermaster. You sold ten plans, and the businesses you recruited gave out game passes, and every time one got activated, you earned commission. That’s how it works.”, so you got £150 for selling the marketing service, plus the £1000 from the game pass activations. Perhaps you should read the affiliates pack so you can further maximise your income.

I finally sat down and read the paperwork properly. And wow. The 20% commission for signing up a business? That’s just the beginning. The real magic is in the residuals. I get a cut from every game pass that is activated by the businesses that I recruited. It turns out that this is where the real money is made, and it requires so little effort from me that I literally didn't know I was doing it! Talk about making money in your sleep! By the way, the business also makes money from the game passes - how democratic is that!

By month three, I’d signed up twenty businesses. I was earning about £100 per month from each one, just from game pass activations, and I’d only been working a few hours a week.

What knocked me sideways was realising I’d spoken to over fifty businesses the previous month. About half of them seemed genuinely keen. If even a fraction of those signed up, I could be looking at £3,000 or £4,000 the following month or two. Who knows? What I do know is this: there’s roughly a £100-per-month return per business, so the projection is easy.

And what really strikes me is that these businesses are essentially getting paid to take part. They get more footfall, more engagement, and money back from every activated pass they hand out. I shake my head every time. It must be some strange kind of magic.

It’s surreal. Just months ago, I was wondering how to stretch £40. Now I’m planning proper holidays. I always hated traditional work, the hierarchy, the clock-watching, and asking permission for a lunch break. But this? This is mine, and more, it feeds the geeky aspect of my personality, especially when helping local business owners film their mythical sighting stories And it’s all so casual!

Many mothers at the kids’ school either run a small tourism-based business or work for one. They’re all curious. I spend a few hours a week having somewhat surreal chats. That’s what it feels like. There are no performance reviews, no targets breathing down my neck, no fixed hours. Just one expectation: get new businesses on board. How do I achieve that? Well, that’s entirely up to me.

Yes, there are leaflets, flyers, and guides; they help and tell the story in print, but the rest? That’s me. I explain it in my own words. And somehow, it just works.

The businesses win. The players win. I win. And it all started because I wanted to entertain my kids with sea serpents for an afternoon.

If you’d told me in January that I’d make more money from a mythical monster game than I ever did in a regular job, I’d have laughed.

But here we are. And there you are?

Take a look and have a chat.